1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related generally to the field of orthodontics, and more particularly to staging a path of movement for correcting the position of one or more teeth.
2. Related Art
One objective of orthodontics is to move a patient's teeth to positions where the teeth function optimally and aesthetically. Conventionally, braces are applied to the teeth of a patient by an orthodontist. The braces exert continual force on the teeth and gradually urge the teeth to their respective ideal position. The orthodontist does this by adjusting the braces over time to move the teeth toward their final destination.
Apparatus, systems, and methods have been developed to facilitate teeth movement utilizing clear, removable teeth aligners as an alternative to braces. A mold of the patient's bite is initially taken and desired ending positions for the patient's teeth (i.e., a functionally and aesthetically optimum position) are determined, based on a prescription provided by an orthodontist or dentist. Corrective paths between the initial positions of the teeth and their desired ending positions are then planned. These corrective paths generally include a plurality of intermediate positions between the initial and ending positions of the teeth. Multiple clear, removable aligners formed to move the teeth, to the various positions along the corrective path are then manufactured. One system for providing such aligners formed to move the teeth to the various positions along the corrective path is the Invisalign® System from Align Technologies Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif.
In currently available systems for providing clear, removable tooth aligners, it is often necessary to manually manipulate digital and/or physical models of a patient's teeth to plan movements of the teeth through their various treatment stages, and, thus, to manufacture the corresponding stages of aligners. Although some aspects of the planning and manufacturing processes have been automated, one continuing technical challenge has been to further automate these processes. This challenge is difficult to overcome, primarily because every patient's teeth are unique and their movements during treatment are also unique. In a tooth moving treatment involving multiple clear, removable aligners, every aligner made is different from every other aligner, not only for one patient but, of course, from patient to patient as well. Therefore, automating treatment planning and aligner manufacturing is extremely challenging. At the same time, manually planning each stage of treatment is quite labor and time intensive and requires extensive training.
Therefore a need clearly exists for apparatus, systems, and methods to increase automation of a tooth movement treatment planning process. Ideally, such automation would reduce the time and resources needed to stage the movement of teeth during an alignment treatment. At least some of these objectives will be met by the present invention.